Thursday, 9 June 2016

Worrying Trend?

It's no lie that Leeds has been seeing a bit of an explosion of "craft" beer bars over the past few years. Existing pubs, old and new, have also been expanding their ranges, getting refurbishments and trying to move with the times. It's not a bad thing by any means, but there is something worrying I have been noticing...

I've visited a few new bars only to be wowed with very impressive selections of drinks, beers/spirits/wines everything really, and then left disappointed with the level of staff knowledge.

As an example, me and a friend visited a newly opened bar recently and stood at the bar whilst we had our drinks to try have a chat and see how things were going. It was a big place so they had a lot of staff. There was a woman changing a couple of barrels whilst a man was frantically running round seemingly telling everyone else what to do. The rest of the 10-odd staff looked to us to be 20-25yr old young ladies - which don't get me wrong, I have no problem with.

What I do have a problem with is that no one we really spoke to knew anything about the drinks they were serving! We chatted to one barmaid, who said she'd never tried the beer she was pouring us.. fine, I guess. We chatted to another, she said she didn't like beer... Ok, well I guess you can't please them all... Over the course of the night though it seemed to be an increasing trend. Were most of these people hired for their looks? (doesn't matter if they were all ladies, could have easily just have been a bunch of 10-odd attractive lads..) Was the man running around telling everyone what each product was and where they were on the keg fonts?

It's basic staff training. You need to have staff that know the product. You wouldn't go into a big chain like Starbucks, ask for a recommendation only to have the 'barista' come back with "oh, I don't really drink coffee, I don't know.." You wouldn't stand for it, and we shouldn't have to stand for it in our bars.

It's a fundamental part of the business, and if you open up a new bar with 20+ beer lines - you need to be able to give recommendations, give advice, tell people about what you're selling, or at the very least have an opinion!

Of course, knowledge comes with time and experience, but it's not hard to go through a few of the beers with the staff when they arrive and give little samples to them. They can then easily see what they like and what they don't, and even if they don't like it at least they can explain to customers what they think of it.

And after some time if they don't like anything at all..? they're probably not right for the job, and not good for your business, and you should consider why they were hired in the first place.

I'd go to a bar which had 1 or 2 great beers on that the staff new about rather than a bar with 20+ beers which the staff knew nothing about..

I disagree, Mudge. It doesn’t take much to go through some of the beers with the staff, when they are taken on, and there are now all sorts of publications explaining the differences between various styles of beers.

Many are available in leaflet form, and if it was my bar, I would certainly impress on staff the importance of knowing what they are serving up to customers; even if they didn’t actually like beer (poor mis-guided fools!)

It does seem, from what Ghost is saying that in this instance the owner of this bar has gone for style over substance, which is fine if they want to drag a load of young blokes in to ogle the bar-staff, but not really much of a plan for a viable business.

Me under the white sheet

One Ghost's journey through the world of beer, and an insight into said journey through random ramblings.
A beer drinker. A beer maker. A beer seller and a beer writer. Don't get me wrong though... it's not all about the beer, I also have a degree in woodwork too, so I could probably make some casks for you. It's really not all about the beer though, I also love my Scotch too, probably a little too much...
Give me Imperial Stouts and Single Malts to end the day and I'm a happy man. If you want to know anything more give me an email at Mc_WillBob@hotmail.com